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snow sits around looking wintry
It's cold out there. Darn cold. The snow shows no signs
of melting, except in inconvenient places where the melt
water runs into the streets and freezes forming dangerous
little patches of ice that nobody notices until their car is
skidding out from under them. It looks like winter. Big
snowbanks frozen solid into the shapes the plows left.
Chunks of ice scattered by the neighborhood kids trying to
did a fort into the glacier forming next to my back fence.
Immense holes in the fence next door - for once the plow
knocked somebody else's fence over - must be a new plow
operator. A Yup. Winter.
I went down to Rhode Island for the weekend and was
astonished to discover they didn't have nearly as much snow.
In fact they basically only had a light dusting. Of course,
when Nancy and I decided to go to
Watchemocket Cove to look for birds after
brunch at Downcity, all hell broke loose. The wind kicked
up. The sky darkened ominously. Snow started swirling around
us out of nowhere. I counted 39 swans, 16 mallards, 40 or so
Canada geese -none of which was Igor- and we hopped back in
the car without even breaking out the scope to check out the
barely visible ducks over by the golf course. They could
have been rare visitors from outer Mongolia or Mars but
we'll never know. The wind was penetrating through my
jacket. Nancy was in a light coat, not even close to dressed
for winter. When we left her place for Downcity it was a
pleasant autumnish day. By the time we'd finished our
breakfast quesedillas and driven the few miles to East
Providence it was the dead of winter. I guess I'd better
stash several seasons of clothes in the car.
So instead of birdwatching, we drove around the east bay
looking for my dream house, good views of water, and ducks
visible from the warmth of the car. By the time we got to
Colt State Park, the snow had stopped but the wind was
fiercer than ever. It was fun just sort of touring around
but I was getting tired and Nancy had to be back for her
social work support group, so we cut our adventure short and
headed home.
As I was driving back up here to this northern land, I
noticed the snow seemed deepest in central Massachusetts -
near the exit I would take to Kevin's house - then thinned
out a little but not that much as I got closer to the coast.
The snowfall patterns around here are pretty consistent even
in an El Niño year. The timing and the amount may be
unpredictable, but the distribution of what does fall seems
to follow some sort of bioregion boundaries or something.
today
I'm still trying to get over this cold from hell so I
slept late and took it easy all day. I did a bunch of
errands, had a nice healthy lunch from the Earth Food Store,
and spent what seems like years fiddling with the design of
the journal pages. And yet, readers will notice little
difference. I could have spent this time entering more of
the travel diary, sorting more pictures, writing a novel,
cleaning the basement... but no, I had to fiddle with the
page design. And this is only the beginning. Watch this
space for further aesthetic blunders...
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